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Investigation of Strut Crack Formation in Open Cell Alumina Ceramics
Author(s) -
Brown David D.,
Green David J.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1994.tb09744.x
Subject(s) - materials science , ceramic , composite material , cracking , coating , fabrication , pyrolysis , polymer , thermogravimetric analysis , stress (linguistics) , chemical engineering , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
An investigation was made into the source of strut cracking during the fabrication process of open cell ceramics that are produced by coating a polymeric foam. Several sources for the stress that produces these cracks were considered, viz., differential drying, thermal expansion mismatch between the polymer and the green ceramic coating, and the gas pressure produced by pyrolysis of the organic skeleton. Thermogravimetric analysis of the polymeric foam was used to estimate the gas evolution rate associated with the pyrolysis process, but this was found to be very low compared to the pressures required to cause strut damage. SEM observations on samples taken by interrupting the fabrication procedure showed the cracks were not produced during drying but rather at a temperature near the melting/decomposition point of the polymer and prior to pyrolysis. It was then deduced that the differential thermal expansion between the polymer and the ceramic coating was the source of the stress. The strut cracking is observed to occur primarily in the region of the highly curved strut edges of the polymer foam, at which the ceramic coating is often rather thin. Techniques to change the processing procedure to overcome the strut cracking are discussed.